The things we do for fun

We arrived at our campground and while we were checking in, the owner went over some of the things to do in the area. Because this campground was at a winery, naturally they offered wine tasting. She also mentioned that they were holding an art class that evening, all supplies provided and no experience or talent required.

Everyone we had met in the office had been so friendly and enthusiatic, I decidded I would indeed try my hand at painting.  Because of a very rainy day, some folks had cancelled leaving just 2 of us in attendance.  Our instructor was the owner of the vineyard, mother-in-law of the campground owner. My fellow attendee was also staying in the campground and the 3 of us hit it off well.



Our still life was to be based on another painting of fruit and a glass of wine.  I set to work on the task at hand and started doing the painting as instructed, although at times it seemed confusing to me. We were directed to start with the piece of fruit in the foreground and work our way back. This made filling in the background and layering more difficult for me, but I perservered through the session.


As we ladies were having so much fun, and after 2 hours of painting, knew we needed to take a break for the night, we decided to rejoin at 10 the next morning to continue our works of art.  Upon my return to the RV, I looked up differnt still life images on the computer.  During our time painting, I was bothered with the centralness of my work, all the fruit and wine glass were in the middle and although there was some variety of height, the edges were empty.  While viewing the internet images I realized that I could add a wine bottle to my painting which would help give more height and direction to my scene.

The next morning, as I looked at my painting from the night before, I changed my mind as to the locaiton of the bottle I was going to add.  Instead of having it sitting on the table, I chose to have it suspended, with wine pouring out of the neck of the bottle and in to the glass.  Naturally I also added a cork on the table to my image.


I asked if there was any rhyme or reason to the placement of my name or initials as I felt that should be my final activity on the canvas. Should it be to the bottom right or left.  Looking at my canvas I realized that my signature and date could only go in one place; on the cork from the wine bottle.

Now to decide how to frame it and where to hang it.

Some campground reviews

Jan-Feb: Crystal Isles RV Resort, An Encore Park, Crystal River, FL.  Our site was classified as a Thousand Trails member site (we aren't TT members, but were allowed to use the site). Parking area and patio region were a full cement slab. 50amp FHU. monthly cost: $500 + tax + electric + wifi. Large park, around 200 sites, most back-in.
Pro: had their own boat launch on to an inlet on the Crystal River, Gulf Coast Region of Florida. Weekly activity meetings with free food. Several dog waste baggie dispensers around campground. Weekend breakfast buffets $. Monthly live band w/free admission.
Con: Only 1 place to hold activities so limited. Outdoor swimming pool, other entertainers with $ cover charge. Office staff did not always come across as competent and we had several financial errors with our bills. No-see-um insects were a major nuisance and we were unable to leave windows open as they could pass through screens.

March: Holiday Travel Resort, Leesburg FL.  We were on an end unit in Little Center section (campground has over 900 sites). Site was grass and dirt, with a slope back to front.  30amp FHU monthly cost: $620 + cable + tax + electric. Wifi free if you went to key locations on campus.  Super large, over 900 sites, all pullthrus
Pro: plenty of activity buildings and things to do on campus. weekly farm market. direct water access to Lake Harris via Helena Run for boating. 2.5 mile campground circumference road for biking. No no-see-ums so windows could be open. Indoor and outdoor swimming pools. Fenced dog park
Cons: too many activities - much older clientele who had bought park models - no real feel of campground because there aren't many trailers near ours.  30 amp site so we had to watch what we ran and when. Dog park too far away from site and too populated with small dogs and owners who went to chat, not reinforce obedience.

April 1-8: River Lodge RV Resort, Inglis FL.  Flat site with cement picnic pad but dirt and/or sand parking area.  50amp FHU Cost $189 week w/Good Sam.  Approx 150 sites, all back-in
Pro: price included all options. good wifi reception. 2 laundry facilities, paved road through campground,great for bike riding, away from it all but on fairly major roadway.
Con: not right on water, have to drive 1 mile to closest point for kayak, 10+ miles to town

April 9-10: Lake Harmony RV Park, Townsend FL. Flat site backed up to large fishing pond. Site dirt under pine trees.  50amp FHU. Cost $29 nightly w/GS. Smaller park - around 50 sites. most pullthrus
Pros: 1 mile to I-95 but in middle of nowhere. site 47 backs on to water for spectacular views. Pond large enough for kayaking.
Cons: dirt roads and sites. Sites overlap each other, have to be careful about where you set up camp.

Apr 11: New Green Acres RV Park, Walterboro, SC. Right next to I-95.  long flat sites in a pine forest. mix of utilities. 50amp FHU w/cable $32 w/GS. 100 sites, all pull thrus
Pros: easy access to I-95, long sites, could stay connected if we wanted.
Cons: pricing confusion from billboards - rate listed of $25/night if for 30amp, W/E - no sewer, no cable. dirt roads and dirt sites. lots of road noise. no place to kayak or bike. Not worth the money - will stay at WalMart up the road.

April 12-16: CarrollWoods (Grapefull Sisters Winery & RV Park), Tabor City, NC. flat sites in middle of nowhere. dirt roads and sites, 30 sites, all pull thrus. 50amp FHUw/cable & wifi $19 w/Passport America.
Pros: At a winery, newer park (4 yrs old), well thought out and laid out. Super large dog park, quiet area. PPA was to be for 1 night, but because they were rather quiet, allowed us more nights on discount.
Cons: 6 miles to boat ramp, 10+ miles to stores. first tick of season on us. dirt roads became muddy.

Where has the time gone

Two years ago (04/04/11) we accepted an offer on our house, the final hurdle in our plans to live full-time in the RV.  Sitting here now it's hard to believe it's been a full 2 years since then. It seems so long and yet has flown by so quickly.

So what have we learned?  For starters, that we should only travel with 1 vehicle and trailer - you may remember we started off with 2 vehicles and 2 trailers: the pickup towing the 5th wheel trailer and the SUV towing the utility trailer.  While the utility trailer has been great for garaging the motorcycles, the financial strain having to buy fuel for both vehicles, as well as the physical strain with both of us having to drive identical trips was wearing on us.

One year after we started fulltiming, we decided to get rid of the SUV and to leave the utility trailer and motorcycles with friends while we traveled.  Nowadays we talk about getting a toyhauler to eliminate the necessity of leaving the motorcycles behind and free us from the utility trailer.  Based on what we've seen from various RV manufacturers, that plan is sometime in the future.

Another biggie we wish we had done from the get go was the air bag hitch in the truck for the trailer, thereby having much less bouncing between the rig as we drive down the road (we did swap to an air bag hitch after one year).  Also there's the desire for a rear bumper on the RV so we could put a bike rack on that instead of carrying the bikes strapped to the RV ladder.

We joined one discount RVing club when we first started camping, but would have joined another one sooner if we had really looked at how much we were going to travel.  Good Sam has been a good 10% discount at almost every RV park we've stayed at, but Passport America is even better at 50% off the regular price.  Granted the rules for Passport are more rigid and change from campground to campground (blackout days, # of days, specific sites, etc).  Still, any savings we can find while traveling are appreciated. Getting life memberships in these two clubs was smart also - we recouped those expenses within 1 month of travel.

When camped at an RV park with only 30 amps, we've quickly learned to NOT run the a/c and coffee pot and/or microwave all at the same time.  We've also learned to locate the breaker for our site within the campground if it's not right on our electric post.

Less obvious things we've learned: half the items we've packed in the RV are still "packed", we don't need / wear all the clothes we brought; there's not much room for personal decorations - what open wall space we have get covered when the slide rooms come in so nothing can be placed there permanently and hardly any shelves to display mementos; how to build a decent campfire (do not stack wood and kindling in a heavy pile, rather form a teepee shape), and with the fire, how to cook a decent frozen pizza over a campfire; you can never have enough pieces of wood in various lengths and thicknesses to use for leveling blocks. Pullthru RV sites are much easier to maneuver on than backins, and cement pads are better than sand or grass sites.

How to put a circle in a square

With my crocheting, I've been trying to learn how to do different stitches so I don't get bored on a project quickly.  Recently I decided I wanted to do more granny squares, but thought a flower or other round shape in the center would be more fun for me than the basic square.

I looked at numerous tutorials on line and found one pattern that gave me the basic concept of doing round inside a square. I didn't find one that did quite what I wanted (although I'm sure it's out there on the Internet, I didn't want to spend even more time searching) but through trial and error was able to create what I wanted.











I had some orange and yellow yarns and decided to mix and match, most of the square have the circle in the center, but a few I did as complete granny square.  I also switched colors 1/2 way through the 4 rows of stitching, but again, on a few, decided to go with the same color all the way through.  Below are the 30 square for the small blanket I'm making for a charity.  First sorted by exterior color, then laid out in the pattern I'm going to attach them in. And that's the new dilemma - do I use just one color (brown) or do I use two (brown and buff) when I attach the squares.  I'll post a final picture when it's done...

Scarey at best

Last week, while relaxing inside our RV, we saw a vehicle go by outside that was definitely doing more than the posted 10mph within the park.  A short minute later we heard sirens and 2 fire trucks followed the same route as the first speeding vehicle.  Since not a lot of "excitement" happens in the park, we decided to find the trucks and watch from a distance. As we walked out the door, an ambulance and another fire truck drove past.

We quickly assumed it was a medical situation and the trucks were closer and first responders.  Next thing we knew, there was another fire / rescue truck passing us. As they got to the end of the street, we could tell the driver was trying to figure which way to go.  Having seen the previous vehicles turn to the right, we motioned that way for the driver.

As we approached the same turn, we looked up in to the treeline and could see thick black smoke and also started smelling burnt / melted plastic or rubber.  A very thick smoke and a very thick odor.  Because we now saw smoke, we realized it was indeed a fire, not a medical emergency within the park.

This particular RV park has over 900 sites, with three quarters of them being park model units.  The section of the park the fire was in is an older section so units are closer to neighbors than other sections.

Approaching the end of the road the fire trucks had finally turned down, we overheard one person telling another that the fire was in a motorcoach. A luxury bus motor home was burning.  Between the gasoline or diesel fuel on board for driving as well as the propane for cooking or heat, fires are very serious.  We also overheard that the owners of the bus were out of the park at that time and had been getting things ready to head out the next day. They had recently bought a park model as they intended to return to the park for the next few years and had parked their Class A bus in the storage lot. Two days earlier they moved it down to the other side of their road to pack it for the return trip North. (Fortunately they lived on an outer perimeter road and had woods across the street instead of another row of park models and RV.)

We chose not to go down to the fire while it was being dealt with, instead we walked by the next day.  The air was still rancid with the smells from the fire.  The entire back end of the coach was charred and debris from inside the bus was outside on the ground.

Because of someone else's bad luck, we were reminded of what is / was valuable and have discussed how we would handle a similar situation if it should happen to us.  Not something I would want to experience.

Miss Moneypenny

A few weeks ago we said "goodbye" to our beautiful 10 year old puppy, Miss Moneypenny.  She had been doing poorly the past 2 months and on her last visit to the vet, serious issues were discovered which had been missed the previous visits by the vet and us as we were all focused on a different health issue.

Moneypenny came in to our lives in the Spring of 2003 when Chuck and I drove to Altoona PA to pick up a puppy for my parents.  We had been warned the breeder had more puppies available when we took the trip to get Jonah for Mom, so I deliberately left the checkbook at home.  At the breeder's home we met several puppies and took note of one "crazy psycho" pup; the smallest of all the pups was running around under the table legs and seemed like a barrel full of monkeys.

Once we got Jonah back to my mothers, we started talking more about getting a dog ourselves and decided we wanted a female, but NOT the silver one.  When we spoke to the breeder to tell her of our decision, we found out the silver was the only female so we decided to get her.

Selecting a female character from the movie series that people would recognize was a no brainer. The name Moneypenny came to me quickly - I had been working as a secretary and both Chuck and I were James Bond fans.

Moneypenny was an easy going, happy dog who amazed us with some of her unique abilities. We referred to them as Moneypennyisms - crossing streets at crosswalks, going in to a show dog prance as we walked by an elderly apartment complex when residents were watching, being aloof with most folks but recognizing special needs folks and allowing them to interact with her.

One quirk she was was her choice of sleeping locations.  Moneypenny never was one to get on furniture, but whenever we'd go to visit Chuck's Dad, she would go sleep on a bed, at first it was the dad's bed, but the last year, it was our old bed which was now in the guest room.

Another was her dislike of wet weather, both rain and snow.  There were several times I'd have to hold an umbrella over her on our walks. And when it snowed, "Miss Prima Donna" didn't want to get her paws cold and wet. I'd pack down a route through the yard so she'd have a path to follow when she went out to do her business.

When we started traveling fulltime, we built a seat divider so Moneypenny and Rugby wouldn't have to fight for space.  We'd be driving down the highway and hear Rugby growl or even bark and would scold him for giving her a hard time.  One time I was watching the actions of the backseat area and discovered that Moneypenny was staring over the divider down at Rugby, and when he opened his eyes and looked up, he'd see her head in his space and bark - she was an instigator.

She was my "baby" and brought me so much joy and comfort throughout the time she was with us. She is missed so much.

Hey No-See-Ums, ah, we're back for a week...

Yep, that's right, after spending 2 months at FL campground 1, we headed to FL campground 2 for three months this winter.  Then we returned to FL campground 1 for another month (read 6 months total within a 60 mile area). Yesterday, April 1 we played an April Fool joke on ourselves and returned to FL campground 2's area for a week.

That's right, we decided we hadn't had enough of the no-see-ums that bothered us so much Dec - Feb and came back.  We are at a different campground, about 15 miles apart, and not right on the water so the hope is the biting insects are not as bad.

The real reason we are back on the Gulf Coast of FL is because of RV friends Michael & Glenda have returned to the area themselves. But come next week, or the next if need be, we have to be on the road heading towards MD for the First Birthday for Miss Paysen Marie, our grandbaby.

Do we stay or do we go

We've been in Florida for 5 months, 2 at one campground and the other 3 at a second location. Considering we slept in 25 states during the previous 6 months, three months in one place is starting to feel like an eternity to me.  So this morning we decided we're leaving Florida campground #2 and, drum roll, return to campground #1.

What! you might wonder. Why back to #1?  Well, it's still winter and northern campgrounds are not open, we have friends in the surrounding towns, and the dogs' vet in in that community.

Moneypenny's been having lots of issues with her chronic ear infection and the nearly 150 mile round trip from campground 2 to the vet has become an ordeal.  He wants to see her at least 2 or 3 more times before we do head out to see if we may fianlly have this ear issue under some control.

One of the biggest reasons though that we've chosen to relocate are the no-see-ums, tiny flying insects that bite and leave itchy welts all over my body.  The bugs bother some people more so than others and I'm one that's really bothered. I have awoken in the middle of the night from the severe itch the bites give me.  Campground 1 does not have issues with no-see-ums, but does have fire-ants and mosquitos. However, that campground does attempt to keep the insects under control.

So we leave Crystal Isles